Two arrested after protesters throw milk at Joe Biden during Trinity College Dublin visit

Protesters at Trinity College Dublin threw milk at former US president Joe Biden during his visit to the university on Tuesday.

Biden was in Dublin to watch his son Hunter receive the Gold Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Public Discourse from the College Historical Society. The visit was not widely publicized, and several news outlets described it as a “surprise” visit.

Once news spread on campus that the former president was there, however, a protest broke out over his “handling of the genocide in Gaza,” according to Trinity’s student newspaper, the University Times.

Biden, 83, who served as vice president under Barack Obama from 2009 to 2017 and as the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025, recently said that his treatment for prostate cancer has forced him to scale back public appearances.

Protesters surround Biden's cars, accuse him of 'killing students across the globe'

Students surrounded Biden’s cars, chanting “shame on you” and “genocide Joe,” the University Times reported.

“This is not what student-led societies are meant to do,” Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union president Amy Kennedy said in a speech at the protest, according to the paper. She accused the Historical Society of having “actively [invited] someone who has killed students across the globe.” The University Times noted that Biden had not been invited and attended the event as a guest.

Videos circulating online show police restraining protesters as others chant, “blood, blood, blood on your hands.” Milk can be seen spattered on the ground as Biden is escorted away by his security detail and Irish police officers. Other objects were also thrown, according to Irish public broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTE), though it gave no further detail. Neither the footage nor subsequent news reports show whether the milk hit the former president.

Local news outlets give conflicting accounts; police say two arrested, one charged

As Biden left, police tackled two protesters to the ground and beat them with batons before arresting them, according to the University Times. RTE, however, reviewed the footage and could identify only one protester being beaten and detained. Harper Alderson, editor of the University Times, told RTE after the event that pepper spray had been used on two protesters.

“A protest took place in Trinity’s Front Square on Tuesday 10 November during a ceremony in the Exam Hall at which Hunter Biden was presented with a Gold Medal by the Hist debating society,” Trinity College Dublin (TCD) said in a statement to the University Times.

“The protest escalated while the Bidens were leaving. The [police] arrived on the scene, and two people were arrested. Then [the] Biden family left without incident. The protest dispersed soon after.”

Irish police told The Jerusalem Post that they had arrested two men, one in his 50s and one in his 30s, on Tuesday “in relation to a public order incident at Trinity College Dublin.” The man in his 50s has since been charged and is due to appear in court, police said. 

Student Union claims protests were peaceful, police used unnecessary force

The Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union and the Union of Students in Ireland released a joint statement on social media after the protest, condemning the police response.

“[Police] were called on students participating in a peaceful protest against the presence of former US President, Joe Biden, on their campus,” the statement read.

The unions also said that the police's actions showed a "brutal, disproportionate use of force."

“We continue to condemn any university that chooses to police peaceful student expression rather than engage with students and respect their right to protest,” they added.

They also called on the university to "reaffirm [its] commitment to full divestment from Israel, and to revoke the honorary doctorate granted to Joe Biden in 2016."

TCD cut all ties with Israel in June 2025, following mass student protests and lengthy deliberations by university leadership. Local media reported that the university ended its relationships with all Israeli universities and with any companies headquartered in Israel.

According to the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement’s website, TCD also committed to not participating in any new research projects that include “complicit Israeli institutions” and to “advocate for Israel’s exclusion from such frameworks.”